Post Office's losses

From Republika

I want to comment on the loss suffered by PT Pos Indonesia (the Post Office) as reported in Republika on Nov. 7. The Post Office's General Manager, Hana Suyana, predicted that by the end of this year (2005), the company would have suffered a loss of about Rp 100 billion.

The fuel prices increases have made their operational costs to go up, while its income cannot match expenses. In order to minimize the losses, PT Pos has introduced "efficiency measures" in its working system.

Apart from the increases in transportation costs and that of the procurement of the post materials, the expenditure for salaries for the company's employees, which total 24,000 and 15,000 retirees, also has gone up.

In my opinion, the net loss this year has come about because many people no longer depend on regular postal services, now they prefer to send short messages via cellular phones, which is less expensive and much, much faster. SMSs are also used for sending religious and seasonal greetings.

But this must be taken as a motivating force for the Post company to improve their services and work harder to be more competitive in rendering its services to the public.

BUDHI PURWANTO Wonogiri, Central Java